It May Be Winter

It may be winter but not too cold to sit on my balcony

A few weeks ago I complained about the cold. I was just kidding back then. Now I am really bitching about the cold. Once again I am fantasizing about what it will be like here when it is really warm. That time will be here soon enough and will last for many months. I am waiting patiently. In fact, tonight I am waiting patiently out on my balcony as I smoke a Cuban cigar and write these words.

I have one of the better balconies that I have seen in Valencia and I’m sure that I will get a lot of good use out of it when the weather turns for the better. It adds a good 100 square feet or so on to an already big apartment and provides a good view of the neighborhood from the fifth floor perch.

I have been eating a little too well and with the rain I haven’t had a chance to ride my bike. I really noticed this today when I put on a pair of pants I haven’t worn since I got here that only fit if I am at my trimmest. I was planning on doing some shopping at the Algiros market today but all I got were a huge bag of olives. The two women at the olive stall got a big kick when I ordered in Valencià. On the way home I stopped at the green grocer and picked up some Canary Islands bananas and some Roma tomatoes. I feel like too much of a tub to eat anything tonight, but that doesn’t keep me from having a glass of brandy.

Today at 6:55 people in Europe were to observe a five minute lights out in honor of the global warming conference in Paris. It wasn’t about saving five minutes of electricity but simply a means to draw awareness to this issue. American right-wingers constantly pooh-pooh this topic and practically fall over laughing whenever the temperature is lower than average—as if this negates all of the scientific evidence that points to global warming. I just want all of the right-wingers to say for the record that they think global warming is a hoax. As I mentioned in an earlier essay, they have been wrong about so many other things. Go
ack and read what all of the neo-cons were saying about the war. Talk about being deluded.

Even if we are wrong on this point, all it means is that we spend some money to clean up the planet—not too much of a downside in my opinion. If global warming is happening, as most reputable scientists believe, and we do nothing about it, what will be the downside? Remember that old Bill Cosby gag with god talking to Noah? "How long can you tread water?" By the way, I was napping through the lights out, or apagón as they called it here in Spain. My short nap helped to save the world.

I have noticed that Al Gore is a rather revered figure here in Europe, as he should be. He has dedicated himself to public service along with presidents Carter and Clinton. It will be great when Gore wins the Academy Award for his film and gets to give a real speech at that fatuous celebrity fuck-fest. He makes me proud that I am American.

I have been so intent upon inculcating myself in Spanish life that my origins rarely come up in conversation here. Seattle is really hard to pronounce, or mispronounce, in Spanish so I usually just tell people I’m from the west coast. If they persist I tell them Sea-ah-tell and describe the immense natural beauty of the emerald city. The next place that I live I will be telling people about how great it is here in Valencia, even during the cold days of winter.